What can I do with the BNC?

The BNC is a corpus - a collection of samples of real life
language, chosen to be as varied as possible in its
coverage. It includes speech as well as a wide variety of
different kinds of written language, all chosen from the same
time.

The BNC is distributed in a format which makes possible
almost any kind of computer-based research on the nature of the language. Obvious
application areas include lexicography, natural language understanding (NLP) systems, and
all branches of applied and theoretical linguistics.

Uses of the BNC

What's the plural of corpus? In what social situations is
wicked a term of approval? Why does it "sound wrong" to say The good
weather set in on Thursday although The bad weather set in on
Thursday is perfectly acceptable? If I can say I live a stone's throw away
from here , can I also say I'm going a stone's throw away from here?

Large language corpora can help provide answers for these kinds of questions -- if only
because they encourage linguists, lexicographers, and all who work with language to ask
them. The purpose of a language corpus is to provide language workers with evidence of how
language is really used, evidence that can then be used to inform and substantiate
individual theories about what words might or should mean. Traditional grammars and
dictionaries tell us what a word ought to mean, but only experience can tell
us what a word is used to mean. This is why dictionary publishers, grammar
writers, language teachers, and developers of natural language processing software alike
have been turning to corpus evidence as a means of extending and organizing that
experience.

With the development of computing technology able to store and handle massive amounts of
linguistic evidence, it has become possible to base linguistic judgment on something far
greater and far more varied than any one individual's personal experience or intuitions.
The British National Corpus (BNC) was created in order to offer that possibility to the
widest variety of researchers, scholars, teachers, and language enthusiasts

Ultimately, its use is limited only by our imagination; if you have any need for up to
100 million words of modern British English, you can make use of the British National
Corpus.

The main uses of the corpus, are as follows:

Reference Book Publishing

Dictionaries, grammar books, teaching materials, usage guides, thesauri.
Increasingly, publishers are referring to the use they make of corpus facilities: it's
important to know how well their corpora are planned and constructed.